


Witch Hazel

by roseclaw



Series: Slayer'verse [5]
Category: Gym Class Heroes, Hey Monday, High School Musical
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-11-22
Updated: 2009-11-22
Packaged: 2017-10-03 14:06:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,562
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18951
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/roseclaw/pseuds/roseclaw
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's like <i>Like Water for Chocolate</i> only with more vampires. Zeke-centric.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Witch Hazel

**Fandom**: HSM with some BtVS lore mixed in and Bandom (HM, GCH, and a couple FOB - Clan - shout outs)  
**Pairing**: light Zeke/Sharpay   
**Rating**: PG  
**Word Count**: 5,300 words  
**Spoilers**: None  
**Warnings**: Alex jokes. Because if there's one thing bandom needs less than another Michael, it's another Alex. Also, basketball terminology and abuse of the word "cool."  
**Author's Note**: This takes place before [Dance Like It's the Last Night of the World](http://archiveofourown.org/works/18721). This was to help me suss out Zeke's character for Sharpay's piece, which will come soon. Beta by - because she's awesome like that and because she took the only straight guys in this entire 'verse and wanted to slash them together.   
**Disclaimer**: HSM is that of Disney and Ortega. Buffy is that of Joss. HM and FOB belong to themselves. _Like Water for Chocolate_ belongs to Laura Esquivel.  
**Disclaimer 2**: This is my first time writing Zeke. Sorry for any stiffness to his character. But he was fun to write.   
**Summary**: It's like _Like Water for Chocolate_ only with more vampires. Zeke-centric.

 

Witch Hazel

 

Zeke was drawn in to Witch Hazel by the sale on arrowroot powder. It was a strange spice to have a sale on, but Zeke had a whole series of pies (possibly tarts, too) he wanted to make and the thought of experimenting with arrowroot powder was too powerful to give up.

It was a nice boutique, some place he expected to see sparsely adorned with various hats that cost more than his allowance for the entire year but Sharpay and her brother loved.

The girl behind the counter looked up from her magazine, eyed him critically, then returned to her magazine. She had two-tone hair and a style that Zeke couldn't name but involved a lot of black eyeliner, black bracelets, and a bright blue and green shirt with some strange heart thing with bat wings.

There were no other people in the shop.

Zeke shrugged and examined the rows of glass jars perched on the shelves along the walls. He had never even heard of half of the spices along the shelves. Powdered quartz? Wasn't that a rock? Orange water. He could use that. Zeke examined the price and decided that he could make his own orange water.

"What are you looking for?"

Zeke jumped in alarm. He looked down to see the girl looking up at him.

"Arrowroot powder," he said, giving her a hesitant smile.

"Cool," she responded. "Your first aid kit low?"

Zeke stared at her. "Pardon?" He must have heard that wrong.

"What were you planning on using it for?" she asked, flicking her long bangs out of her face with a jerk of her head.

"I was planning on baking a bunch of pies," Zeke explained.

The girl frowned at him. One side of her mouth pulled higher than the other. "Pies? Like apple and cherry?"

"Yeah," Zeke said with a smile.

"Huh," she said pensively.

Zeke felt like they were both speaking different languages. "Why would I use arrowroot in a first aid kit?" he asked slowly, wondering if maybe he would have to make his pies at a later date. Maybe even purchase his ingredients at Wild Oats… or Smiths if he were desperate enough.

"Arrowroot's used for removing venom and stuff from, like, a snake bite," she said.

Zeke's eyebrows rose. "Is that the most common need your customers have?" He was half afraid of the answer. Because if this girl thought that he needed it for snakebites, not pies, like normal people used arrowroot powder for…

"It's not always snakes," the girl said with a shrug.

Zeke frowned, but he decided not to pursue it any further. It was like he was in a different dimension or something. One where all teenage girls were crazy. Or. No, that was his life. In this different dimension, teenage girls spoke a different language than he did. No. That was his life, too. The problem was that Zeke was too curious not to ask.

"What is it if not snakes?" There. It was now out.

The girl shrugged again. "You wouldn't believe me."

Zeke thought about this for a moment, before he decided that, yes, he wouldn't believe her. That didn't change the fact that he really wanted to know.

He nodded.

The girl shrugged again. "How much arrowroot do you need?"

"Oh!" Zeke exclaimed. He had forgotten that he needed measurements. He was going to make at least five pies, maybe three tarts. But if he wanted to repeat a recipe, he was going to need more. Each pie would have about four tablespoons of arrowroot so… "Uh. Ten ounces," he said. Hopefully that would be enough.

"Cool," the girl said. "For pies, huh?" She grabbed the jar of arrowroot powder and carried it over to the counter.

Zeke watched as she scooped out ten ounces of arrowroot onto a balance scale. She then poured it into a flat-bottomed vial and capped it with a cork.

She said something in a very strange type of Spanish - speaking to the arrowroot. It actually sounded more like Italian than Spanish. Maybe some weird hybrid between the two. Zeke's neighbors spoke Spanish, but they were Columbian. Maybe she spoke Spanish from Spain. They had different dialects, right?

She charged him five dollars for the arrowroot.

\- - -

Zeke's pies turned out to be one of the most incredible things he had ever tasted. His mother was so impressed that she immediately invited over everyone in their extended family who lived in Albuquerque and everyone in their neighborhood. Zeke was put in charge of three bake sales for various charities, two birthdays at various times in the near future, and Mrs. Ramirez offered Zeke her first born for a three-layered chocolate cake with mint-orange-chocolate icing and peanut butter between the layers.

Zeke was fairly certain she was exaggerating - about the first born part. She was just over seven months pregnant with twins. Zeke did not want either of them, but he agreed to make the cake for her anyway. They all offered him payment for time and ingredients, and they all said that should he ever need a letter of recommendation for culinary school, just ask and he shall receive the most glowing recommendation of all time.

\- - -

Zeke used up the arrowroot he bought at Witch Hazel. He couldn't make it back before they closed for the evening, so he made a trip over to Smiths as a last resort, barely making it before they closed.

The next batch of tarts he made tasted horrible.

He threw them all out before anyone else could try one.

\- - -

When Zeke returned to Witch Hazel, the girl wasn't there. Instead there was a guy as old as Zeke behind the counter. Zeke vaguely recognized him from West. He had large hair, but no where near the levels of which Chad had large hair. It was more along the lines of the guy rolled out of bed and forgot to brush it. This guy could contain his hair under a baseball cap. On the bill of his baseball cap was the same heart with batwings as the girl had on her shirt before.

He eyed Zeke carefully as he approached the counter. Like last time, there was no one else in the store. Zeke wondered how they made money if no one was ever in the store.

"Uh, hi," Zeke said.

"S'up," the guy greeted in return.

"Last time I was here," Zeke said, "uh, there was this girl who helped me with arrowroot."

"'K," the guy agreed. "Your first aid kit low again or something?"

"Or something," Zeke said. "I use arrowroot in cooking."

"Huh," the guys said pensively - in the exact same way the girl had before. "You're here for some more, right?" he asked.

"Yeah," Zeke said.

"Cool. Let me call Cass, see what she used," the guys said, then reached for the store's phone and dialed. After a moment, he said, "Yo, Cass, it's Alex… No. Lipshaw… Oh, ha ha. You're so clever. Look, I have this guy here looking for more arrowroot for cooking… Yeah, that's what I thought too… What spell did you use?"

Zeke choked on his tongue and started coughing, because spell? He was hearing things.

"Emotion, huh? Yeah, I've seen the movie… You mean there's a book too?" Alex burst out laughing. "Yeah, yeah. Which Alex? Cool. See you tonight." He hung up.

Zeke's mouth hung open.

"How much arrowroot do you need?" Alex asked, looking up at Zeke.

"Pardon me?" Zeke said in a calm and clearly suppressed voice. "Did you say spell?"

Alex frowned at him. "Yeah."

"Oh," Zeke said in a small voice. "By spell you mean…?"

"Magic?" Alex followed up. It sounded as if he were explaining to a small child that there really is no such thing as Santa Claus. Or to an adult that there was a Santa Claus…

Zeke stared at Alex blankly.

"Dude, the name of the shop is Witch Hazel. Did you miss the "witch" part?" Alex replied, a little too sarcastically for Zeke's tastes.

"I thought it was a plant," Zeke replied reasonably.

"That's the clever part," Alex shot back. "Look, do you want your arrowroot? I can cast the same spell that Cassadee did. Hell, I can even teach it to you so that you can use it on flour and sh-stuff," Alex offered. "Actually, no. Cass is a thousand times better at this shit than me. You want her to teach you?"

Zeke continued to stare.

"Dude?" Alex prompted. He gave Zeke a questioning look. And that had sarcasm to it as well.

Well, Zeke had nothing against learning new things. "Sure. I'll take the arrowroot."

"You want Cassadee to teach you, too?" Alex asked. "It's $15 for the first session, 50 for any additional sessions."

"Sure," Zeke agreed. Why the hell not? If it helped his baking, all the better. If it was all insane, he could just stop shopping at Witch Hazel. It would only cost him maybe an hour of his time. If that. And the $15.

"Cool," Alex said. "Cass closes on Saturday. Can you make it then?" He pulled open a drawer and riffled through it, pulling out a pen with a smile. He grabbed a leather bound notebook and looked to Zeke with an incredulous expression.

"Saturday's good," Zeke found himself answering.

"You sure? I'm writing this in pen." Zeke couldn't tell if Alex was being facetious or not. He mentally thanked his mother for that SAT prep book with all of those large words. He was actually using them.

"I'm sure," Zeke confirmed.

"Saturday at nine," Alex narrated as he wrote in the book. "What's your name?"

"Zeke Baylor," Zeke responded automatically.

"Zeke Baylor," Alex repeated, writing as he did so. "Awesome. You're good to go. Now how much arrowroot do you need?"

"Four ounces," Zeke decided.

"Awesome," Alex said.

This time Zeke paid close attention to the words spoken to his arrowroot when it was put into the vial. He even asked what language it was.

"Latin," Alex said with a shrug. "This is old shit."

He handed Zeke his arrowroot powder in a vial with a cork stopper. Zeke happily took it.

"The spell," Alex said. And while Zeke's brain attempted to keep up, Alex continued, "The spell is linked to whatever emotion you're feeling when you're baking."

Zeke nodded, his brain still trying to catch up with Alex's words.

Alex peered at him. "So if you're happy, the food is awesome, and if you're upset, the food could be poisonous. So be careful, dude. Don't test on, like, your grandmother or something."

Zeke made sure that his horror showed on his face.

"You catch everything?" Alex asked, examining Zeke's face carefully.

"Yes," Zeke said firmly before saying a quick "Thank you" and racing out of the store.

\- - -

Zeke thought about Sharpay while he mixed filling, and his pies turned out even more amazing than before.

\- - -

Zeke took a deep breath before he looked at his watch. It read 9:01. He took another deep breath before crossing the street to enter Witch Hazel.

The girl looked up from her magazine as he entered and said, "Hey, you made it." She flicked her bangs out of her eyes with her forefinger.

Zeke gave her a weak smile.

"Do you mind locking the door behind you?" she asked.

Zeke locked the door and flipped the "Open" sign to "Closed."

"Awesome. Thanks." She smiled at him. "I'm Cassadee Pope, and I'm going to teach you all about food magicks."

Zeke blinked hard.

"C'mon," she beckoned him into the back room.

Zeke was disturbed how happy he was that the back room was not a meat locker where his body would be strung up on hooks. Instead it was cozy and was what he thought every psychic's parlor would look like. Except there wasn't a crystal ball on the table. It was on a shelf, and it was very cloudy.

"Does that actually work?" Zeke asked, pointing to the crystal ball.

"Sure," Cassadee said. "But not the way you think. It's always cloudy except when I look into the past."

That sounded really familiar, but Zeke couldn't place it. "Isn't the point of crystal balls to see into the future?"

Cassadee raised her eyebrows. "Sit down. We need to de-Hollywood-ize you."

Zeke sat down at the table.

Cassadee sat across from him. "Okay, so first, you need to be on board with the whole magic is real thing, 'cause Lipshaw said you were totally freaking out the other day."

Zeke tried to keep his face neutral and not convey the message that there were no sane people left in the world, himself included, because he was in the back room of a magic shop - the kind that sold potions and spices, not top hats and turtle doves - of his own volition. To learn magic.

Cassadee snapped her fingers. The crystal ball sat in front of Zeke on the table.

Zeke blinked at it, then poked it. It was solid.

"I really don't have to snap my fingers," Cassadee said with a shrug.

The crystal ball disappeared.

Zeke looked back to the shelf, and the crystal ball was back on the shelf.

"Did you just - ?" Zeke broke himself off.

"That's just a simple parlor trick, you know?" Cassadee said. "But it's magic."

Zeke nodded.

"Are you going into shock?" she asked.

"No," Zeke said. "It's… uh, it's a little overwhelming. That's all."

"Cool." Cassadee smiled at him. "Just don't make any _Harry Potter_ references, and we're good."

She stood up to cross the room and plucked several containers from various shelves. She returned to the table, placing the items on the table.

"Magic takes a long time to excel at," she said when Zeke opened his mouth. "You look like an athlete. What sport?"

"Basketball," Zeke responded.

"Cool. You didn't become a good athlete overnight. You needed to, like, practice," Cassadee pointed out. "Magic's like that too."

Zeke could follow that logic. Not everyone was born Troy Bolton. Plus, Troy would never be able to play post. And Chad made his first double-double before Troy anyway.

"We're gonna start off with the food thing. You like cooking, right?" Cassadee inspected Zeke's face carefully.

"Yeah," Zeke said. "I bake."

"Cool. Maybe if you do well, you can pay with baked goods instead of cash," Cassadee proposed.

"Uh, wouldn't that not sit well with the owners?" Zeke asked, on the other side of uncomfortable.

"Our owner's really cool. Actually, that may be the preferred method of payment," Cassadee said. "Anyway, here's some chocolate." She pushed one of the containers into the center of the table. "I want you to repeat exactly what I say."

She said something that Zeke couldn't even come close to following. Cassadee repeated herself, and Zeke still couldn't follow.

This went on until quarter of ten.

Cassadee was very frustrated and so was Zeke.

"Okay," Cassadee said with forced calm. "Languages are obviously not your strong suit or whatever. How about food?"

Zeke frowned at her. "What - "

"Shh!" Cassadee hissed. "Open the container," she ordered.

Zeke did so. There were Hershey Kisses inside.

"Take one and eat it," Cassadee said.

Zeke did so. It tasted like a Hershey Kiss. A little on the stale side, but he really didn't expect anything better.

"Now take another one," Cassadee continued. "Don't eat it yet."

Zeke looked at the candy in his hand, then to Cassadee.

Cassadee said the same words she had been saying all night, but there was a different feel to them. Zeke really didn't know what to call the change in her tone. Not even with all those new SAT words in his vocabulary.

"Now eat it," Cassadee encouraged.

Zeke did so with no small amount of apprehension.

The chocolate was the most delicious he had ever had.

He made a small, delighted noise in the back of his throat.

Cassadee smirked at him. "That's what we've been trying to do."

Zeke nodded.

"Now repeat after me," Cassadee said, followed by a string of Latin.

Zeke repeated it perfectly.

"Awesome," Cassadee beamed at him. "Again."

Zeke did so.

"Go on and try it," Cassadee said enthusiastically.

Zeke reached for the chocolate but jerked away when the front door slammed. "I locked it," he said quickly.

"Then that must be someone with a key," Cassadee pointed out, rolling her eyes. "We're back here, Travie," she called.

A moment later, a head poked through the door. He had large hair in the same way Chad had large hair. He was also covered in tattoos and had piercings on his face (and ears) that Zeke didn't know the names for. "Hey," he said.

"Hi?" Zeke asked.

"Travie," Cassadee said. "This is Zeke Baylor. He's learning food magicks. Zeke, this is Travis McCoy, the owner."

Zeke and Travis nodded at each other.

"Travie, if Zeke's awesome at baking, he could pay with baked goods, right?" Cassadee asked hopefully.

Travis eyed Zeke. "We'd have to do a trial run first," he decided. Then he said to Cassadee, "Were you finishing up here?"

"Yeah," Cassadee said. "We have, like, five more minutes."

"You might want to extend that time," Travis said darkly.

Zeke frowned, unsure if that was a dig at his lack of language skills - even though Travis knew nothing about that.

"What's going on?" Cassadee asked urgently.

"Vamps on the hunt," Travis said. And apparently that meant something to Cassadee because her eyes grew large, giving a stark contrast between the whites of her eyes and her black eyeliner.

"Why are there vampires on this side of town?" Cassadee asked in a small, strained voice.

Magic was nothing when compared to the absurdity of _vampires_.

Zeke's mind went blank. He briefly considered slapping himself in the face to knock him out of his stupor, but decided against it.

"I don't know," Travis said. "But I don't want either of you going out there until it's clear."

"What?" Zeke blurted out. Apparently being under house arrest could knock him out his stupor. And it wasn't even his house.

"C'mon, upstairs, the both of you," Travis said with accompanying hand motions.

Zeke protested weakly as Travis shooed him and Cassadee out the other door of the back room, up a flight of stairs and into a very tactfully decorated apartment.

"Sit tight, kids," Travis said. "You want anything to drink?"

Zeke shook his head, but Cassadee asked for a Diet Coke.

Travis sat them down at the kitchen table before he rummaged through his fridge. He pulled out a Diet Coke for Cassadee and a beer for himself. For good measure, he gave Zeke a bottle of water.

"I can't stay here," Zeke said. "I promised my mother I'd have the car back by 10:30."

"Sorry, man," Travis said. "I'm not letting you out there until I know you'll be safe. It's bad for business if you're eaten right outside my door."

Zeke looked to Cassadee, who popped the tab on her Diet Coke.

"Just relax," she said.

"Vampires," Zeke said incredulously. "You're all nuts."

"Go to the window," Travis said with a shrug.

Zeke gave Travis a highly skeptical look but went to the window. Travis followed him. Zeke was uncomfortable with Travis behind him. He was in this man's apartment because he claimed there were vampires out there. He also owned a magic shop. That didn't exactly mean the man was mentally stable. Zeke unconsciously slid away from him.

"Down there," Travis said, pointing at a steep angle.

Zeke followed Travis's finger and saw three people run down the sidewalk. They looked like normal people, maybe a little pale, but normal enough. Zeke blinked and three people ran after the original three. Leading them was Taylor. Well, it looked like Taylor, but Taylor said she was spending the evening with Chad, Troy, and Gabriella. They were going somewhere together on a double date. And Zeke did not recognize the two older men Taylor was with. One was blond and the other brunet. They seemed familiar with each other, though. Like, they were comfortable with the other. The brunet followed really closely to the blond and at one point slapped the blond on the butt.

Taylor caught up to the slowest of what Travis had indicated as vampires. Zeke still wasn't sold on the idea. He also wasn't sold on the idea that the girl was actually Taylor. Taylor threw a punch at the guy's face so hard that the guy fell onto his back. Taylor jumped on him, and then something happened. Zeke wasn't exactly sure what, but it looked like the guy just exploded.

He blinked at the entire situation several times.

"Damn," Travis said in an awed whisper.

"Wha?" Cassadee asked, walking up to the window to peer down.

"Looks like there's a vampire hunter in town," Travis mused.

"Cool," Cassadee said. "Hey, that girl looks kinda familiar."

"Did that guy just explode?" Zeke asked distantly.

"Dude, vampires explode when staked," Travis said, trying to find a better angle to see what was going on. He sounded very relaxed about it.

"He's still new to the magic thing," Cassadee said vaguely as she directed most of her attention to the scene below.

The remaining two pale people had turned to face Taylor and the men who had been chasing after Taylor to join her. Words were said. Zeke couldn't read lips, but reading their body language wasn't difficult. The pale men were threatening Taylor and the guys she was with. And Taylor and the guys she was with were so thoroughly unimpressed.

And, yeah, that was Taylor. Zeke would recognize her bitch stance anywhere. It's usually directed at Chad. But Zeke recognized it, and this was a lot to process all in the span of two hours.

Magic, vampires, and Taylor _hunting_ vampires.

How was he supposed to process this? It was like - It was like he… It was a whole new world. Right there in his own. His world was now larger and a lot more dangerous. All he had wanted was to make better pies and possibly tarts.

The two remaining pale people sprinted away from Taylor and the guys with her. Taylor sprinted after them. After a beat, the guys with her followed.

A moment later all five of them were out of sight.

Wow.

Zeke was going to need _years_ of therapy just to jumpstart his brain again.

"The vamps are still out there, kid," Travis said. "You'd better call your mother. Tell her you're staying at a friend's."

Zeke stared at him. "I can't lie to my mother."

"You've never snuck out or shit?" Travis asked incredulously.

"No," Zeke said. Why would he do that?

"It's either that or the truth," Travis offered.

Zeke sighed. "Alright."

He went into the other room, which he assumed was a living room of some sort. There were a lot of weird things along the walls. Like shrunken heads and many different sizes, shapes, and colors of bongs. At least Zeke thought they were bongs. He'd never actually seen one before in person. There were also African masks and bowls.

Zeke called Chad. He figured that Chad would have the experience in covering for friends.

Chad answered on the first ring.

"Zeke?" Chad sounded very confused. "What's going on, man?"

"I need you to cover for me," Zeke said after sucking in a deep breath. "Can you say that I'm sleeping over your house tonight?"

"Are you with a girl?" Chad teased.

"No," Zeke said, insulted. "Well, yes, but not like that."

"Are you being held hostage or something?" Chad questioned.

"No?" Zeke asked. He examined what looked like an ocarina shaped like a three-headed dog, peering at it. He didn't dare touch anything. He felt like Travis would somehow know. And he felt uncomfortable touching anything that wasn't his. He didn't know if something would bite him.

"What are you doing, then? You're not drunk, right?" Chad asked. Zeke was obviously confusing him.

"You honestly wouldn't believe me," Zeke settled for.

"You're not with Sharpay, are you?" Chad asked. "Because, you're right. I wouldn't believe you."

"So you can cover for me?" Zeke asked eagerly. It wasn't exactly a lie if Chad didn't want to know.

"Sure. Just promise me you'll never tell me any of the details," Chad compromised.

"Thanks, Chad," Zeke said.

"Don't mention it," Chad said. "No, really. Don't ever mention it. Especially where my mother might hear you."

It took Zeke a full minute between hanging up with Chad and calling his mother.

His mother answers on the fifth ring.

"This had better be good," she demanded. And Zeke felt bad for waking her up.

"It's me, Mom," Zeke said, trying to keep his tone remorseful. It wasn't as difficult as he thought.

"You weren't in an accident, were you?" she asked, panic edging her voice.

"No, Mom. Taylor broke up with Chad, so I'm over his house to keep him company," Zeke lied. Although he was fairly certain that Taylor had broken up with Chad. She was with two guys - neither of them were Chad - when she was supposed to be with Chad. Oh, and she apparently hunted vampires.

"Oh," she said. "Well, that's too bad. They were a lovely couple. You should bake him some chocolate chip cookies and make sundaes," she suggested.

"Sure," Zeke agreed. "I'm sure Chad would really appreciate that."

"Okay, you be good to him, and I'll see you tomorrow," she said.

"Night, Mom. Sorry for waking you."

When Zeke returned to the kitchen, both Travis and Cassadee were talking about something that may have been about demons.

"How'd it go?" Travis asked.

"Okay," Zeke said, avoiding looking at either Travis or Cassadee.

"Do you want to have that trial run for the baked goods?" Travis asked.

Zeke stared at him.

"We have some time to kill," Travis explained. "I don't think I have any fancy stuff, but I have flour and sugar," he offered, waving at his refrigerator. "If it's there, you can use it. Same with the spice rack."

"You have a spice rack?" Cassadee said incredulously. She then laughed. It sounded very much like Sharpay's laugh.

"Uh," Zeke said, hesitating. "That guy said only to bake when I was happy," he pointed out. "I don't want to poison you guys."

"You won't," Cassadee promised. Se stood up and rummaged through Travis's cabinets, pulling out flour, sugar, brown sugar, and a jar of peanut butter. "What can you make with these?"

"I - Peanut butter cookies?" Zeke asked.

"Cool," Cassadee said.

"I have chocolate chips in the freezer," Travis said.

"Oh!" Cassadee exclaimed, yanking open the freezer. "That's where you've been hiding them!"

Zeke figured there was no way out of this, so he might as well make something.

"I'm also going to need some other things," Zeke said to himself as he opened the refrigerator. It was mostly empty. There was half a head of lettuce, an apple, two oranges, a jar of pickles, a bottle of maple syrup (real maple syrup from New York, not that maple-flavored pancake syrup), half a stick of butter, and four Styrofoam take-out containers. There were no eggs, though. Nor milk.

He grabbed the maple syrup, the apple, and the butter. He'd make maple apple cookies. Those were more impressive than peanut butter cookies. Even if they were peanut butter chocolate chip.

Cassadee grabbed a bowl and a fork for him. She eyed the apple and grabbed a knife too.

"Where's the - "

Travis interrupted Zeke, "Spice rack's in the second drawer from the left."

Zeke went to the second drawer from the left and pulled out nutmeg and apple pie spice… and for good measure the cinnamon. He also grabbed baking soda. He put everything in a row on the counter behind the bowl.

"Hold up," Cassadee said. She grabbed the bowl from the counter and spoke Latin to it. Casting a spell, Zeke's mind supplied. She then went back to the kitchen table. She took a sip of her Diet Coke before saying, "Tell us about the girl you're trying to impress."

Zeke frowned at the bowl before he turned around to glower at Cassadee.

"There's obviously a girl," Cassadee reasoned, flicking the tab on the can with a fingernail. She looked at Zeke in what she probably thought was an innocent way.

"Her name's Sharpay," Zeke said resignedly, returning to stare at the bowl on the counter.

"Like the dog?" Travis asked, clearly trying to keep from laughing.

"Like Evans?" Cassadee asked with a sneer.

"Yeah," Zeke agreed. "Sharpay Evans." Zeke grabbed the apple and the knife and started to peel it over the garbage can.

"Why do you like her?" Cassadee asked, obviously biting her tongue to keep from saying something poisonous. Probably literally.

"She's beautiful," Zeke said. His face broke out in a smile. He finished peeling and chopped the apple up into tiny pieces. He then reached for the flour and started measuring out the dry ingredients. "She's amazingly talented. She has a beautiful singing voice. She can dance and act. She never gives in to anyone's demands, and she expects everything she does to be perfect, never settling for mediocre."

Zeke was able to talk about Sharpay until he finished placing the cookies on a cookie sheet that Cassadee had found and Travis's oven had heated up to 350.

Travis gave Zeke an incredulous expression when Zeke put the cookies in the oven and turned around to face the kitchen. Zeke was feeling much more relaxed than he had earlier. Baking always allowed Zeke to clear his head.

"Why would we be safe from vampires in your apartment but not in the shop?" Zeke asked.

Travis's expression went from incredulous to thoughtful before he said, "Vamps can't enter a place where people live unless they're invited. The shop's open to the public. My apartment isn't."

"Oh," Zeke said in a small voice.

"He probably needs a quick lesson in the occult," Cassadee said to Travis.

"Okay. Yeah. Cool, I can do that," Travis said, staring at Zeke very intently.

"I'm a witch," Cassadee exclaimed brightly.

"Cassadee's a witch," Travis repeated in amusement. "She does magic. Some gypsies do magic too. So do seers, but seers only can look into the future, usually as it relates to another person. There are different types of magic, too."

Travis went on until the oven timer went off. Zeke really didn't process most of what Travis said. It was a lot.

Zeke took the cookies out of the oven with a dishtowel as Travis didn't have oven mitts. He didn't have a cooling rack either. Instead, Zeke propped up the tray, balancing it on two glasses.

"They're going to be a little soggy," Zeke announced.

"Dude, you're making us cookies," Travis said. "You can't go wrong with cookies." Travis turned to Cassadee. "Unless you're Jersey."

Cassadee sniggered.

Zeke had no idea what "Jersey" meant.

"That batch of brownies Jersey made tasted like chemicals," Cassadee said, scrunching up her face.

Zeke figured that Jersey was a person. Probably.

Zeke busied himself with testing the cookies. Maple apple cookies, which he had never made before. In fact he had made up the entire recipe. But, man, they were delicious.

Travis did have a spatula, which Zeke used to place the cookies on a plate, which he presented to Travis and Cassadee.

Cassadee shoved a cookie into her mouth, and Travis took bites of his, thinking about it.

Cassadee had barely swallowed her cookie before she reached for another one. "These are the most amazing, delicious, wonderful, awesome cookies I have ever eaten," she said around her second cookie.

Zeke smiled.

"These are good," Travis echoed. "If you make them all this good, you can definitely pay with them."

Zeke's smile grew larger.

"I'm gonna make sure that you're just as awesome as I am at casting food spells," Cassadee resolved. Zeke thought she was on her fourth cookie. "I'm gonna gain, like, fifty pounds."

"Welcome to the world of magic, young padawan," Travis said with a smirk, leaning back in his chair. "You have much to learn."

-

End.

-

Expect another Alex cameo. Suarez to come. Heh. Food magicks!


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